A well thought out point of view. I agree that the media should not have an "agenda" for promoting any cause. But women in media have certainly earned their stripes by now, and it seems they are not being properly recognized and rewarded, especially in developing countries. That may still take awhile, unfortunately.

Woody in Egypt

Dear Relitsa,

Every human beam, either you are a women or man are unique,
and have something to learn each other. But the main thing is that
everybody must act being themself. Act as another person will only
be a bad copy.

A journalist role is to inform people, to take every story on its merit, as
you have written Relitsa, and the only way is to act trustworthy and as
objective as possible. There a journalist who are a women must tell
the stories in here own way, thats the way for journalist women to
receive expression of approval and respect.

And about your Doctor who got three daughters, must I say! You never
know you know, before you know! About he truly understood, he must
have done that, because that was the very best lesson he could have got and not easily to be forgotten.

Kind regards,
Knut Magne Hansen

I agree with you that setting an agenda for women in the media could jeopadise reporting and presenting issues on merit. In my country Nigeria, 30% of positions in government is reserved for women. It has not helped in solving the problem. Merit has been sacrificed and this has not helped the cause of women as a lot of mediocres are thrown up. I love the concept of fighting like a man and winning like a woman. Keep up the good work.

"According to the Global Monitoring Survey only 21% of the news covers issues important to women."

Are there really topics that are important to women, but not to men? Are there really topics that are important to only men and not to women? Don't most or all topics in one way or another affect us all?

"I've seen agendas get corrupted"

True. Wouldn't part of our development as professionals and individuals include learning to define goals properly and stay focused on them? Would that actually include learning to set good agendas and learning not to corrupt or distort them? Could we say that there may also be a big difference between corrupting agendas and making wise modifications or corrections when necessary?

What kind of definition would a good dictionary give us for the word "agenda"?

This is among the most insightful explorations of gender issues I've ever read. In fact, it is arguably the *best* such I've read.

Global thinker asks three rhetorical questions, very good ones:

"Are there really topics that are important to women, but not to men? Are there really topics that are important to only men and not to women? Don’t most or all topics in one way or another affect us all?"

I'll agree with Global thinker on those. There are issues that do directly affect one gender only, such as gender-based disease (ovarian cancer and testicular cancer come to mind), since men can't have the one and women can't have the other. But that doesn't mean men don't care about ovarian cancer nor that women don't care about testicular cancer, does it?

Coming to the issue you explore here as a professional: should a member of the media take an agenda into her or his work? I applaud and shout "Bravo!" at your wise conclusion. Let me give support to your conclusion from what on the face of it seems a most unlikely source for a metaphor: law enforcement.

Think about it. A police officer - in an advanced democratic society, anyway - has his or her own prejudices, views, lifestyle, etc. Yet a genuinely dedicated officer never stops striving to leave his or her own foibles at home when pinning on the badge and strapping on the gun. Of course, too many police officers either don't give a damn or fail to some degree, despite their best efforts.

And another professional metaphor, one not so strange: teaching.

No teacher can possibly be equally fond of all his or her students - yet professionalism demands they don't develop an agenda against a disliked student. For that matter, neither can teachers have a fawning agenda for a favored student.

Having been both a police officer and a university teacher, I've had to battle to overcome my own shortcomings in this area in both professions.

I wish we could promote you to "Global Media Ethics Professor"! Again - BRAVO!

Kurt Francis
Thailand/USA

my mom is a simple housewife from the inner country
whenever theres an economic news
the tv put a heavyweight commentator
who use a suit and speak words hardly used
i want an anchor
who is female, looks like a country housewife
and use simple words
to say exactly the same thing as the heavyweight
the economic fact makes my mom go down the hole
but she dont understand the rope thrown to save her